325 is pleased to present this newly released Elephant Editions free PDF download of the classic pamphlet Fra Contadini by the Italian anarchist, Errico Malatesta (1853–1932).

This classically successful text is a simple to read explanation of anarchist ideas in a conversational style. It was first printed in 1884, when it appeared in La Questione Sociale, the paper that Malatesta founded in Florence, Italy.

It is accompanied by an introduction by present day Italian anarchist-insurrectionalist comrade, Alfredo M. Bonanno, who reiterates the practical reality of expropriation and insurrection, and affirms the senselessness of attempting to “update” comrade Malatesta’s great work, which attempts “… to convince the peasant, the worker, the emarginated ‘lumpen’ proletariat reader, of the mechanism of exploitation and repression, of the system of ideological and political swindling, with the aim of pushing them to rebel in the struggle against the class enemies, and ultimately, to insurrection.”

The title also includes a short biography of Malatesta by David Poole.

This PDF is being made available for all comrades and interested people to download at no charge. We actively encourage you to print and distribute these important anarchist theoretical texts which pose a real danger to the established order in their circulation.
“My effort did not, nor does it here, intend to provide arguments supporting revolutionary violence. It just wanted, and still does, to make a contribution to the revolutionary ideas and activity of Errico Malatesta. Many unwarranted things have been said about this anarchist who all too often has been enlisted under the banner of whatever side or even party. Like all true revolutionaries, Malatesta did not bother to sort through his papers, he addressed problems as they occured in reality, always ready to look for evidence in the social conflict rather than in a theoretical syllogism.”From the Introductory notes by Alfredo M. Bonanno, Trieste, Italy 2008